Metal-elastomer composites are widely in use for a variety of purposes and have various constructions and configurations. For example, it is known to provide metal-elastomer composites which can comprise a pair of metal bodies, e.g. plates or sheets, which have a solid elastomer body vulcanized to the adjoining surfaces of the metal sheets.
Such composites are widely in use as shock absorbers, as vibration-absorbing supports or barriers, as sound-damping partitions and elements, and even as elastomer springs to provide restoring and oscillation-damping phenomena for vibrations and oscillations transverse to the sandwich or composite structure and even in planes parallel to the aformentioned surfaces.
As is well known with such composites, the relative movements of the two metal members are imparted to the solid elastomeric body which is thereby subjected to torsion, tension, compression and/or shear and which elastically deforms under such stresses and can thereby transform such vibrations and oscillations to heat by internal molecular movement within the elastic limits of the body.
While such composites are highly advantageous for sound and vibration damping and as elastomer springs, and are comparatively inexpensive because they require only vulcanization of the metal surfaces of the solid elastomer body sandwiched between them, they are not satisfactory as heat-insulating members or as thermal barriers, because they have poor heat-lagging properties.
That is not to say that there are not composite structures with heat-lagging or thermal-insulation or heat-barrier properties. For example, composite plates utilizing synthetic resin cores which are generally inelastic or at most have only a fraction of the elastomeric character of rubber, can be provided as heat-barrier or insulating layers.
These composites, however, have poor sound-damping properties and heat resistance.